I Know You By Name

I Know You By Name

We look at the word friendship. If asked to make a list, we could write down the names of our friends. What if another person were asked to write down the names of their friends? Would we be on it? A friend is someone we can count on. Someone we can talk to. Someone with whom we like to spend time. We know our friends by name. Likewise they know us by name.
Looking in Exodus we can see an Old Testament example of friendship. In Exodus 33 God tells Moses God spoke to Moses as a friend. A few verses later God tells Moses, “I know your name.”
In the book of James we can read that “Abraham believed God.” And that he was called a friend of God.
Christ is called the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Savior of all mankind, and rightly so. But He also wants to be our friend.
In the New Testament two different words used by Christ are translated friend. The one is found in Matthew 26:50. Judas had come to the Garden of Gethsemane to betray Christ. After receiving a kiss “Jesus said to him, ‘Friend why have you come?'” The word here is hetairos. Translated friend – it means comrade, fellow, friend. One with whom you may share activities or members of an organization. The second word used by Jesus that is translated friend is philos. Meaning a dear friend, a fond friend. We would all prefer to be called philos and not hetairos. But how? In John 15 Christ tells us, “You are my friends if you do what so ever I command you”.
We know the command – To Love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. And to love our neighbor as ourself. In today’s news we read of hate, anger and frustration. Even so we must separate ourselves and be true and faithful to our Lord and Savior, who is also our friend, Jesus Christ.
We need to further develop and strengthen our love for His way of life. And He will call us friend and know our name.